Media critic/reporter Howie Kurtz has left his job as Washington bureau chief at Newsweek/Daily Beast following a tough week in which the website retracted a column he wrote on newly out gay NBA player Jason Collins.

In the column published Wednesday, Kurtz said Collins had not admitted he had been engaged to a woman during the time he was keeping his sexual orientation secret. But the athlete, who wrote a first person account announcing he was gay for Sports Illustrated, referred to the engagement in the story and in an interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos which aired Tuesday.

In comments released on Twitter, Kurtz implied that his departure was not due to the controversy over his error, which received loads of criticism on social media, websites and blogs.

“I've enjoyed my time at the Daily Beast but as we began to move in different directions, both sides agreed it was best to part company,” he wrote on Twitter. His next message read: “This was in the works for some time, but want to wish all my colleagues continued success with a terrific website.”

Along with the Collins mistake, Kurtz saw the Huffington Post's Michael Calderone publish a story detailing his efforts to publicize and populate The Daily Download, a media-centered website founded by Lauren Ashburn, a longtime guest on his CNN show. “Judging by his output,” the story paraphrased an unnamed source at the Daily Beast saying, “the high-profile media critic seems to be spending more of his time these days on Daily Download than The Daily Beast.”

(Full disclosure: I have contributed stories to the Daily Download as a freelance contributor and allowed posts from this blog to be featured there. I have also appeared regularly on Kurtz's CNN media analysis show, Reliable Sources.)

The New York Timesquoted an unnamed source at the Daily Beast saying “This is not a reaction to the Jason Collins story or the Daily Download situation….It’s been apparent for some time that Howie has a lot of other irons in the fire.”

As one of the most visible media critics in the country, Kurtz has drawn occasional criticism for everything from balancing his duties as media critic and bureau chief to his work hosting a media analysis show for CNN, which some have said present a conflict of interest for a columnist writing on media. Kurtz has denied such issues, placing disclosures at the end of articles which mention CNN.

Now speculation has turned to his job at the cable channel, which is beginning an extensive makeover of its own. Will Reliable Sources, which remains the highest-profile media analysis show on TV, continue under new CNN worldwide president Jeff Zucker's regime?

That’s a question which may remain to be answered. Kurtz has not yet returned a phone call seeking comment.

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The Feed is your source for television news, reviews and commentary. A group of Tampa Bay Times writers will blog about everything from their current TV obsessions to the changing TV/media landscape (binge-watching galore!). Let's all geek out over our favorite shows together.

As a wee TV fanatic, Times pop music critic Sean Daly first learned to tell time via Lee Majors classic "The Six Million Dollar Man." On family trips, instead of asking "Are we there yet?" he would inquire of his parents: "How many more Six's?" Thus, the concept of an hour. Adorable, right? Not nearly as cute: An adult Sean wears a Tigers hat not to support Detroit but because Tom Selleck wore one on "Magnum, P.I." It's sad really.

Michelle Stark is a Times writer, editor, designer and unabashed TV nerd. Her millennial TV-watching habits rely on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon instead of traditional cable, but she never misses her favorite shows, which include everything from Girls, Parenthood and New Girl to high-minded dramas like Mad Men and Homeland. She never met a reality dance show competition she didn’t like.

Sharon Kennedy Wynne is a Times writer and editor part of that first generation of toddlers raised on Sesame Street. Her TV tastes are eclectic. She's still a big fan of Sesame Street, but also darker fare like American Horror Story and Scandal. As our resident reality TV fan (though she's ashamed to admit it), she has complex theories on Survivor, Amazing Race and Big Brother strategies.